Clinton announces record budget surplus

Flush with tax revenues from a booming economy, the federal government posted a record $237 billion surplus for fiscal 2000, the Clinton administration announced today.

It marked the third straight year of surpluses, something that has not happened since the late 1940s, the Associated Press reported.

Social Security taxes provided nearly $150 billion of the surplus.

The government's 2000 surplus surpassed the previous record of $124.4 billion for fiscal 1999 and came on top of a $69.2 billion surplus in fiscal 1998. The 1998 surplus marked the first time the government had managed to finish in the black since 1969.

President Clinton last month had estimated a surplus of around $230 billion for fiscal 2000 and the Congressional Budget Office was predicting $232 billion.

Revenues for fiscal 2000 totaled $2.03 trillion, while expenditures came to $1.79 trillion, the Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget said.